Long-delayed thanks to original distributor MGM’s financial woes, Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon’s “The Cabin in the Woods” will finally see release on April 13, 2012, more than three years since principal photography on the film began. Now a neat-o teaser poster has been released by Lions Gate (which acquired the film from MGM earlier this year) which features the titular structure hovering in the air and twisted around in some sort of puzzle-like arrangement. Below this central image, the tagline teases: “You think you know the story”, an allusion to the film’s reportedly deconstructionist qualities.
Whedon and Goddard penned the script together, with Goddard – who wrote both “Cloverfield” and its upcoming sequel – taking the helm for his directorial debut. While advance buzz has been strong for the film, and while there’s certainly a sizable Whedon-loyal geek army that will be standing in line opening weekend, I’ll be curious to see if the film can break out to a more widespread audience. Its commercial appeal should at least somewhat be helped along by having Chris “Thor” Hemsworth billed as one of the film’s main stars alongside Kristen Connolly, Anna Hutchison, Richard Jenkins, Bradley Whitford, Jesse Williams and Fran Kanz.
The plot of the film, which has been kept tightly under wraps, concerns a group of friends who spend a weekend at a mysterious – you guessed it – cabin in the woods.
While there isn’t all that much to the poster – which is sort of the point given that it’s been billed as a teaser – in my estimation it’s actually quite an effective piece of marketing. The simple central image and ominous tagline work well together, and I like that the Lions Gate marketing team is going with the “less is more” approach for the time being. My only gripe is that Joss Whedon’s name probably should’ve been more prominently placed given his pull on the fanboy segment of the audience, but that’s a small gripe and besides, those people probably know about the movie already anyway.
Overall, I’ll go ahead and rate this an “A-“.
Check out the full poster below and then rate it for yourself at top left!